Concert audiences will be able to enjoy organ music in the new Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts at Hope College when it opens in the fall of 2015.

The custom-built organ is being constructed by Casavant Frères (Casavant Brothers) of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada. The organ will make the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts the only purely musical hall in West Michigan with an embedded concert organ. The new three-manual and pedal organ will have 54 ranks of pipes, for a total of 3,092 pipes, ranging from some 20-feet tall to the size of a pencil.

Casavant Frères was founded in 1879 by two brothers, Claver and Samuel Casavant. Across its history, the company has built nearly 4,000 instruments in concert halls and churches across the United States and Canada as well as overseas.

To provide the greatest flexibility for the center’s main concert hall, which will host a variety of groups and will seat 800, the organ console will be movable, so that it can be placed center-stage, to the side or removed entirely depending on the needs of the performance.

David P. Roossien of Holland, Mich. has provided funding for the organ as a reflection of his life-long appreciation of music and his long-time enjoyment as a community member of music events at the college.